Shri Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, Shri Rakesh Bharati Mittal, Chairman CII Agriculture Council, Shri Nanda Kumar, Secretary (Agriculture & Cooperation), Shri Daljit Mirchandani and Senior Representatives from Trade and Industry, distinguished invitees, ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to be here inaugurating at the Cold Chain Summit, 2009. In recent years, cold chain development has assumed considerable significance. A rapid and all-round growth of economy and increasing globalization has galvanized the demand for perishables including fruits and vegetables as well as processed food. This has necessitated establishment of efficient end-to-end standardized cold chain network that will ensure preservation of fresh produce from the post-harvest stage till the final retail in domestic as well as overseas market involving large number of stake-holders. The Task Force on Development of Cold Chain in India which was set up in 2007 has made several recommendations in its report in this regard which are path breaking and my Ministry is considering the same in consultation with stake holders. This Cold Chain summit is being organized jointly by CII, my Ministry and Ministry of Food processing Industries at a very appropriate time and I am sure it will help accelerate creation and strengthening of cold chain infrastructure.
India is stated to be one of the largest and lowest cost producers of high value agricultural commodities producing nearly 11% of all vegetables and 15% of all fruits in the world. With the objective of agricultural diversification to boost horticulture productivity and production, National Horticulture Mission has been launched. This will also ensure an end to end approach having backward and forward linkages covering research, production, post-harvest management processing and marketing, under one umbrella in an integrated manner.
Reform in agricultural marketing is another important area to which the Government is attaching a lot of significance. We have taken steps to persuade State Governments to amend Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees Acts to facilitate development of alternative marketing channel in the agricultural commodities. This would give a major boost to investment in Post-harvest marketing infrastructure, including grading, packaging, transportation and storage, needs to be created at a large scale. My Ministry has launched a reformed linked Scheme of Development/Strengthening of Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure, Grading and Standardization to attract public and private investment in agriculture. Complimenting this many of the private players have set up supply chain, distribution and retailing facilities linking producers to consumers effectively. The development of direct marketing will go a long way in providing better pricing to the farmers while ensuring better availability and quality of produce to the consumers.
Responding to the needs of the industry, we have recently revised the guidelines for setting up state of the art Modern Terminal Markets Complex for perishable like fruits and vegetables in Public Private Partnership mode with subsidy provision under National Horticulture Mission. We have already provided in-principle approval for setting up of Terminal Market Complex at four places I.e. at Babangaon in Thane District near Mumbai in Maharashtra, at Perundurai in Erode District in Tamil Nadu, in Patna, in Bihar, in Sambalpur in Orissa. Already bids are underway in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. Similarly, expansion of warehousing services in rural areas and facilitating credit to farmers against their stored produce has been identified as other important areas to help farmer avoid distress sale. The necessary Rules to implement the Warehousing Development and Regulation Act are being finalized in consultation with all the stakeholders.
The Task force on development of Cold Chain in India in its report while recommending augmentation of infrastructure facilities has suggested setting up Special Purpose Vehicle of Cold Logistics as an institutional mechanism to foster the climate controlled transportation of perishable thus facilitating linkage of production centers to distant markets ensuring better price realization for farmers. Similarly it has recommended developing standards and protocols for cold chain infrastructure and services to ensure standardized services in this sector. It has also suggested setting up an autonomous organization in the form of National Centre of Cold Chain Development as a centre of excellence to foster fast-track growth of cold chain in India. We are already carrying out stake holder’s consultation towards implementation of these major recommendations. Similarly, tax incentive for investment in cold chain and warehouses have been provided in the Union Budget 2009, allowing benefit of deduction to the extent of 100% of investment made in these infrastructure facilities.
We are committed to reforms in agriculture, which will facilitate large-scale private investment in every stage of value chain. We believe that both the industry and the State have an important role to play in the agriculture sector. Bringing in the private sector – both as a competitor and as complementary to the public sector adds greater strength and value for money. Both must work complementarily to benefit both the farmers and the consumers. From our side, we have adopted a two-pronged strategy – pushing through the specific enabling reforms in agriculture, and working with State Governments to convince them to implement relevant reforms at the earliest. Several States have been convinced and are well on the path of doing so, while others too will soon follow suit.
I am confident that this summit would bring out recommendations on all relevant issues and further accelerate the process of cold chain development in the country. With these words, I have great pleasure in inaugurating this Cold Chain Summit 2009. I look forward to your positive and fruitful suggestions in forging ahead a stronger public private partnership to qualitatively improve the cold chain infrastructure in the country to mutually benefit the trade and industry as well as people of the country.
I hereby declare summit open and wish it all the success.
Thank you
